heart rate & calories

dashe546

Hi everyone, I’m new to MFP and in general I am new to exercise. I was wondering does your heart rate have any effect to the amount of calories you are burning? At the gym I try to keep my HR some where b/w 140-160. Should it be higher or lower to get the most benefit of losing weight?

brianpperkins

What activities are you doing?

The closest there is to a direct relationship between HR and caloric expenditure is for a select group of steady state cardio activities where HR is used as a proxy for effort in formulas that also factor in min & max HR, VO2 max, height, weight ...

IsaackGMOON

To my knowledge, yes, your heart rate does affect the amount of calories you are burning.

To be losing weight; you need to eat in a caloric deficit. Weight loss happens in the kitchen, physical and mental fitness happens in the gym.

It doesn't matter what your HR is during exercise, as long as you eat in a caloric deficit you will lose weight.

Nuke_64

Heart rate is one indicator of how many calories are being burned. It best used as an indicator for constant activities in the elevated zones while also inputting the information Brian mentioned above. A lot of machines have stuff on them about "fat-burning" zones. Ignore that and read about them here:

http://www.builtlean.com/2013/04/01/fat-burning-zone-myth/

Basically, the harder you work, the more calories you burn.

dashe546

Thanks guy thats really helpful. I usually jog on the treadmill or take a cardio class like kick boxing. I’ve been watching what I eat, but getting into the habit of tracking every little thing is something I need to learn to get use to.